Durham MAG – Bowburn Hump

Durham MAG challenge hazardous humps Road humps on a bend were bad enough, then they painted them

Durham MAG have begun a campaign to have dangerous road humps removed from a stretch of road in Bowburn, County Durham. The local highways department installed road humps as a traffic calming measure to slow cars and trucks down on a busy link road where there were problems with speeding motorists.

Unfortunately they did not take into account their effect on two wheel users, for whom they pose a serious threat. The humps are at the entrance to a 90 degree blind bend and force riders entering the bend to either ride in the potholed flooded gutter or in the middle of the road where they compete for road space with oncoming traffic.

Dave Wigham the acting MAG Regional Rep explained at a recent council press day that, “The road to the nearside of the humps is full of debris and gravel. It is also potholed and given to flooding. Riders passing between the humps find themselves on a collision course with oncoming traffic coming around the bend. The danger is aggravated because cars and lorries tend to straddle the humps to avoid them.” “Given that, the humps are not effective in slowing traffic.”

Dave stresses that: “It’s not that we are against humps on this road; it’s that the pair near the bend are in a dangerous location. “We are urging the council to consider moving those humps to a straighter stretch of road.” “The Highways dept don’t seem to recognise their legal duty to avoid making the road safer for one group of road users if in doing so they make it less safe for another group.” In order to get the council to listen to us we had to engage our MP Roberta Black-Woods who has been very helpful.

Since we began this campaign we have had a response from the Corporate Director of Neighbourhood Services, who along with the Higways department, completely misunderstood the situation. They painted the road humps white to make them more visible, given that they lie in the ride line of a 90 degree blind bend, they managed to do the unthinkable and make them more dangerous. The fight goes on. I would urge all MAG groups to look at traffic calming measures and think how they affect two wheel users.”